Cyber Adversaries Increasingly Using Malware to Destroy Business Operations, according to Symantec’s Annual Report

Cybersecurity company Symantec has just released its Internet Security Threat Report for 2019, which analyzes data captured by Symantec’s global network of 123 million attack sensors. Among other highlights, the report observes that nearly one in ten targeted attack groups now use malware to destroy and disrupt business operations, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Although not cited in the report, a recent example of this was the wiping of data from email provider VFEmail’s servers, which destroyed customers’ data (this incident was previously reported by WaterISAC here). The report also addresses the continued attack vector of phishing to infiltrate organizations. Looking at email phishing rate by industry, the report shows that the transportation and public utilities sector had the highest frequency of these occurrences out of 11 categories of industry. Read the report at Symantec.